.... And found myself in my bedroom closet. I lay on the floor , gasping for breath , stinking of piss , sweat , and the foul slime odor. I felt like I had run a marathon. I lay there for some time , letting the pain in my legs and lungs slowly subside. I wanted to make the images of the horrors I had seen , go away , but they would be forever etched in my memory , giving me many sleepless nights.
The doorway to the other world was gone. There was no trace of it. Had it not been for the slime that still covered me , and the laceration to my ankle - which throbbed like a rotted tooth - I would have believed it to have been a waking nightmare.
Later , much later , I would begin to question my sanity.
The closet door was wide open. The light I had seen from the other side , had been the glow of my Spider man night light. Spidey had saved me - this time.
Getting to my feet , I nearly passed out. I waited a minute , and then limped into the room , shutting the closet door. I sat on the bed and switched on the bedside lamp , to examine the wound to my ankle. It looked nasty , deep enough to require stitches. My entire foot was covered in blood. It was bleeding all over the carpet , but I didn't care. I had to do something before I passed out.
There was only one thing I could do. I had to wake my parents.
Switching on the hall light , I limped to their room. The house was dark and quiet. It made periodic settling noises. When I was years younger , I used to think those sounds were made by monsters.
I knocked loudly. It seemed I knocked forever. Finally my father opened the door. I looked up at him. He looked down at me , frowning.
"Kyle? What....?"
I wondered if he was angry at me for waking him , or because I was covered in stinky slime and smelling of piss. I tried to tell him what happened , but I couldn't : everything around me began to fade , to recede from me. I heard a far off voice say ,"Frank? Is that Kyle?" and I knew it was my mother.
Finally , I collapsed.
....And found myself back where I had just escaped from. This time , instead of being pursued , I was suspended in a slime sack , struggling to free myself. I could hear other children screaming for help. I could hear the eager and hungry sounds of the shadowy creatures. This time I would not escape them. They would finally devour me.
I screamed.
I woke in the hospital. My parents were standing by the bed , looking worried.
"Am I going to be alright?"
They looked at each other , then back at me. "Of course you are , sweetheart ," my mother said. "You passed out. The doctor ran some tests to find out what might have caused it , but he couldn't find a thing."
"But what about - ?" I pulled back the bed sheet and looked at my ankle. There was no dressing , no laceration! It was as if I had never been wounded!
"What is it , Kyle?" she said.
"Nothing."
How could I tell them that what I had experienced was real and not a nightmare? Even though I was seven , and would not be blamed , I didn't want them to believe that I was crazy. So , I said nothing.
"Was it a nightmare that scared you , Kyle?" my father said.
"Yeah , it must have been a nightmare."
I had looked into the face of madness and escaped the Darkness. But , for how long? I knew it would come for me again ; it was only a matter of time. And when it did , I had to be ready for it.
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